Thursday, December 10, 2015

The end of Daesh militarily can be envisioned. But unless the Iraqi
government becomes more inclusive and politics successfully with Iraqi
Sunnis (and spends some of its billions in oil income to rebuild their
cities), then radicalization will remain a threat.

Meanwhile, critics of President Obama’s plan, set out 18 months ago–
which involved training of Iraqi troops and rebuilding the Iraqi army.
and the offer of close air support to them– may have to eat some crow.
That is, they may have to if US cable news bothers to notice that out
there in the real world, Daesh is facing another major setback, after
its losses of Tikrit, the refinery town of Beiji, and the Kurdish area
of Sinjar.

I suspect part of it is thatmost US journalists are based in Erbil and find it easier to report Kurdish advance, and some of it may be that the Iraqi Army''s Shi‘ite militia allies and IRGC advisers don't fit the preferred narrative. (No one is paying much attention to the Asad regime's successes in Homs, either, though not against ISIS.) But it's a valid point.

2 comments:

David Mack
said...

Ramadi campaign does not get attention of most U.S. media because of the following:-- It is slow news, taking place gradually.-- Other than the disappointing pace, it is good news.Slow news and good news do not grab the attention of the U.S. media. When Ramadi suddenly fell to Daesh, it happened suddenly and it was bad news. Hence, it got lots of attention. Chances are, when Iraqi forces aided by U.S. airpower, intelligence and other "unique capabilities" do retake Ramadi, the U.S. media and Republican political leaders will complain it should have taken place a long time ago, and they will look for any flaw they can find, such as reports of civilian casualties. Such is the sate of news in the U.S. media.

"Michael Collins Dunn is the editor of The Middle East Journal. He also blogs. His latest posting summarizes a lot of material on the Iranian election and offers some sensible interpretation. If you are really interested in the Middle East, you should check him out regularly."— Gary Sick, Gary's Choices

"Since we’re not covering the Tunisian elections particularly well, and neither does Tunisian media, I’ll just point you over here. It’s a great post by MEI editor Michael Collins Dunn, who . . . clearly knows the country pretty well."— alle, Maghreb Politics Review

"I’ve followed Michael Collins Dunn over at the Middle East Institute’s blog since its beginning in January this year. Overall, it is one of the best blogs on Middle Eastern affairs. It is a selection of educated and manifestly knowledgeable ruminations of various aspects of Middle Eastern politics and international relations in the broadest sense."— davidroberts at The Gulf Blog

"Michael Collins Dunn, editor of the prestigious Middle East Journal, wrote an interesting 'Backgrounder' on the Berriane violence at his Middle East Institute Editor’s Blog. It is a strong piece, but imperfect (as all things are) . . ."— kal, The Moor Next DoorThis great video of Nasser posted on Michael Collins Dunn’s blog (which is one of my favorites incidentally) ...— Qifa Nabki